Victory Auto Wreckers is an auto salvage yard in

Bensenville, Illinois Bensenville is a village located near O'Hare International Airport in DuPage County, Illinois, with a portion of the town in Cook County. As of the 2020 census, the village population was 18,813. First known as Tioga, it was formally establishe ...

, near

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, ...

. It is well known in the Chicago area for its former

television commercial A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

, in which a young man struggles with a car door that has just detached from its hinges. The commercial aired with limited changes from 1985 to 2015, making it the subject of frequent discussion in the local media. The ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' once described the advertisement as "an indelible commercial image known to almost any television viewer."

Business

Victory Auto Wreckers was founded in the 1940s by a pair of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veterans. The name was chosen for Americans wishing for U.S. victory during WWII. The company was purchased by Kenneth Weisner in 1967 and is now owned by his son, Kyle. Victory purchases wrecked or decommissioned vehicles and then allows customers to browse through their lots in search of workable parts. Any unusable parts are crushed and sold to scrap metal dealers. As of 2005, the facility was processing approximately 14,000 automobiles every year.Justin Kmitch. "Bensenville's loss means legal victory for business". ''

The Daily Herald ''Herald'' or ''The Herald'' is the name of various newspapers. ''Herald'' or ''The Herald'' Australia * ''The Herald'' (Adelaide) and several similar names (1894–1924), a South Australian Labor weekly, then daily * '' Barossa and Light Heral ...

'' ( Du Page County). July 20, 2005. 4. In 2002, the Bensenville Community Development Commission threatened to close Victory Auto Wreckers within two years as part of a

zoning ordinance Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

prohibiting junkyards, incinerators and wrecking yards. However,

appellate court A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

judge Robert McLaren ruled that the facility should be considered a

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

center, allowing the business to remain in operation.

Advertising

Victory aired its first television commercial in 1981. By 1985, the video of the advertisement had deteriorated, and Victory turned to commercial director Ron Patris to create a replacement. That replacement commercial, filmed on May 20, 1985, remained on the air for nearly 30 years, with some minor modifications. According to one estimate, the spot appeared on

WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister station, sister to the company's sole radio property, talk ra ...

and other stations up to 30 times per week. Television historian Steve Jajkowski argued that the commercial was "as much a part of Chicago TV as

Bozo the Clown Bozo the Clown, sometimes billed as "Bozo, The World's Most Famous Clown", is a clown character created for children's entertainment, widely popular in the second half of the 20th century. He was introduced in the United States in 1946, and to te ...

Fahey Flynn Fahey Flynn (August 6, 1916 – August 8, 1983) was a radio and television newscaster who spent the majority of his career in Chicago. Robert Feder of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' described him as "an avuncular Irishman with a jaunty bow tie nda twi ...

and

Svengoolie ''Svengoolie'' is an American horror host, hosted horror movie television program. The show features horror and science fiction films and is hosted by the eponymous character Svengoolie, who was originally played by Jerry G. Bishop from 1970 to 1 ...

." The 1985 commercial was filmed in a residential area near the salvage yard. It starred Bob Zajdel, a shaggy-haired young man who had been working for Victory at the time. In the commercial, Zajdel attempts to enter his noticeably old and run-down car, but his car door suddenly detaches from its hinges and falls to the ground. An exasperated Zajdel jumps back (possibly to avoid shattering glass from the car door's window) and sighs in frustration, but an announcer advises that the car may be worth money, and briefly describes Victory's services. In the next scene, Zajdel receives $40, a $20 bill with two $10 bills behind it, when a

tow truck A tow truck (also called a wrecker, a breakdown truck, recovery vehicle or a breakdown lorry) is a truck used to move disabled, improperly parked, impounded, or otherwise indisposed motor vehicles. This may involve recovering a vehicle damaged ...

from Victory arrives to take his car.Tom McNamee. "He's been getting cash for that car for 24 yrs." ''

''. February 14, 2005. 20. Victory introduced some changes to the commercial between 1985 and 2015; later versions had new announcers (including Dean Richards for airings on WGN and

Rich Koz Rich Koz (born March 12, 1952) is an American actor and broadcaster best known for his portrayal of horror-movie host Svengoolie, as well as his early '90s children's cartoon showcase ''The Koz Zone''. Koz is also the host of the syndicated '' S ...

for airings on

WCIU-TV WCIU-TV (channel 26) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is the flagship television property of locally based Weigel Broadcasting, which has owned the station since its inception, and is siste ...

and

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) and some new graphics, along with several

area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, rea ...

updates to the on-screen phone number and eventually, Victory's

web address A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed as a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifie ...

. However, the footage remained the same, as evidenced by Zajdel's period clothing and hairstyle.William Hageman. "Commercial success - After 21 years, auto wreckers' TV ad never fails to light up the switchboard; but whatever happened to that poor guy with the beater?" ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

''. January 27, 2006. Tempo, 1. Radio personality

Steve Dahl Steven Robert Dahl (born November 20, 1954) is an American radio personality. He is the owner and operator of the Steve Dahl Network, a subscription-based podcasting network. Dahl gained a measure of national attention after organizing and hostin ...

joked, "I've always been a fan of the ultra-wide watchband and the mullet – or perhaps in those days it was called a gypsy shag." Zajdel was never paid extra for his role in the commercial, but he has become a minor local celebrity, appearing in several newspaper interviews. He remarked to the ''

'', "I still own the shirt I wore. And I still have the watchband from the commercial. . . I should take the watchband and the shirt, with a Victory T-shirt, and put them on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

. I could make some money off it." Kyle Weisner said of the advertisement, "There are companies that do a lot of advertising, like, for example

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

, but they change their commercials weekly. With us, our message is the same, so we've never felt the need to change it." In May 2015, however, Victory Auto Wreckers retired their famous commercial in favor of a new spot produced by Xpress Video Productions of

Northbrook, Illinois Northbrook is a suburb of Chicago, located at the northern edge of Cook County, Illinois, United States, on the border of Lake County, Illinois, Lake County. Per the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 35,222. When incorpo ...

. The new commercial features a computer-animated homage to the 1985 footage.Robert Channick.
Victory Auto Wreckers rolls out new commercial
. ''Chicago Tribune''. May 1, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.

Notes

External links

*{{YouTube, BH95UTtbmr8, The iconic commercial Culture of Chicago Bensenville, Illinois 1940s establishments in Illinois